EXPERIMENT 8:

DOES YOUR CLOTHES DRYER WASTE ENERGY?

THINGS YOU NEED: About one hour of spare time on washing day. A clock.

The heart of a clothes dryer is a source of hot air. . . wet clothes tumble through the hot air and are dried. It takes many thousands of BTU’s of energy per hour to heat the air — and so, we should never run a clothes drier unnecessarily.

Unhappily, many people do just that. They set the dryer’s timer for longer than is necessary, and the machine rumbles on long after the clothes inside are completely dry.

This simple experiment will tell the tale. Start by getting permission. Learn how to restart the machine after you stop it by opening the door. Now you are ready to begin.

The next time there is a load of clothes in the dryer, pull up a comfortable chair and start watching the clock. After fifteen minutes goes by, open the dryer door, wait for the drum to stop turning, then feel the clothes (careful. . . they will be hot). They will probably still be damp. Close the door, and restart the dryer.

Do this again every five minutes until the clothes feel dry to your touch. Look at the timer and see how much longer the dryer was set to run. If your dryer is electric, you can figure that every wasted minute burned up about 4/5-ounce of oil (or one ounce of coal) back at the power company. If your dryer runs on gas, figure that every wasted minute burns about l/10 cubic feet of gas.

Here are two other energy-saving tips for dryers:

• Make sure the lint filter is cleaned out every time the dryer is used.

•Don’t dry “half loads”— fill up the machine before using it